Cairns and District Chinese Association

The Cairns and District Chinese Association has at last received planning approval to build their long awaited culture and heritage centre.  A centre dedicated to celebrating the city's rich history of Chinese immigration will finally be built after decades of planning and fundraising.  The organization's vice-president Nathan Lee Long reported that the group had held land at Arthur Street in Manunda since the 1980's for this project which will initially include a multi-use space with the ability to store artifacts from the old Lit Sung Goong temple which was built in 1897 in the city's Chinatown at Grafton Street.  The second stage of the project will incorporate a museum to display their nationally significant collection of artifacts and relics to the public.  Construction of this heritage centre is expected to begin within a year.